Her
impulse was to laugh, an impulse hard indeed to restrain when she
came to the last line of the document and read in Grant's neat,
careful-man's handwriting with heavy underscorings: "Above all,
never forget that you are a mighty stiff dose for anybody, and
could easily become an overdose for a refined, sensitive lady."
But prudent foresight made her keep her countenance. "This is all
very sensible," said she.
"Sensible enough," assented he. "I've learned a lot from it....Did
you read that last sentence?"
She turned her face away. "Yes," she said.
"That, taken with everything else, all but got me down," said he
somberly. "God, what I've been through! It came near preventing us
from discovering that you're not a grand lady but a human being."
His mood veered, and it was he that was gay and she glum; for he
suddenly seized her and subjected her to one of those tumultuous
ordeals so disastrous to toilette and to dignity and to her sense
of personal rights. Not that she altogether disliked; she never
had altogether disliked, had found a certain thrill in his rude
riotousness. Still, she preferred the other Joshua Craig, HER
Joshua, who wished to receive as well as to give.
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